The Individual and Society

25

General, Your Tank

Bertolt Brecht

Bertolt Brecht was born in Germany in 1898. He was a political activist as well as a playwright and poet, and directed many of his own plays. Hitler banned his books and plays, so, like many intellectuals, he left Germany in 1933 during the height of Hitler’s power. Brecht spent the years 1941–47 in America, where he was called before the House Committee on Un-American Activities in 1947 to answer charges of spreading ‘Red’ ideas, but managed to bore his interrogators with a long lecture on ancient Japanese theatre and was let off. After the war Brecht settled in East Germany, travelling to Moscow to receive the Stalin Prize in 1955. He died in East Berlin in 1956.

Though he is best known for his plays like ...